A few caveats:
1. These are just suggested word counts. There are always exceptions to the rules. Authors with many books or those later in a well-selling series are apt to have more leeway, while debut authors will be expected to adhere more firmly. Different publishers (and their imprints) will have different word count guidelines.
2. These suggested word counts apply mostly to authors seeking a traditionally published book. Self-publishing authors can have whatever word counts they like, although readers will have expectations that full books be the length of full books and that your higher word counts are necessary and not just for the sake of word count. Good editing is paramount.
3. When in doubt for YA and up, aim for 80k. It's a bit on the short side for high averaged counts, and a bit on the low side for the higher, but if you aim for 80k you're likely to fall somewhere in the middle. Read a lot of recently published books in your genre to figure out the average counts and go from there. You can also look up word counts in Amazon's "look inside" previews or by searching here for YA/MG books.
4. Back when manuscripts were printed out and mailed around, the easiest way to calculate word count was to count the pages and multiply that by 250. But now that we have Word's word count at the bottom of our screens we no longer have to rely on that tactic. The following counts are based on Word's word count.
Average Word Counts
Micro-Fiction - up to 100 words
Flash Fiction - 100 - 1,000 words, usually no more than 500.
Short Story - 1,000 - 7,500 words
Novellette - 7,500 - 18,000 words
Novella -20,000 - 45,000 words
General Novel - 50,000 -110,000
Genre Guidelines
Picture Books -200-500 words
Early Readers - 500-2000 words
Chapter Books - 5,000-10,000 words
Middle Grade - 25,000-45,000 words, most averaging 35k.
Young adult - 55,000-90,000 words
- YA contemporary tends to be on the shorter side, 60-70k
- YA fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal tends to fall on the longer side due to world building, 70-90k
Adult - 70,000-115,000 words
- Romance - 85,000-100,000 words
- Cozy Mysteries - 70,000-85,000 words
- Mysteries, Horror, Crime - 75,000-95,000 words, most averaging 90k
- Sci-fi and Fantasy - 80,000-120,000 words, most averaging 100k-115k
- Literary and Women's Fiction - 80,000-100,000 words
MG Historical
Between Shades of Gray
Author: Sepetys, Ruta
Word Count: 64750
MG Fantasy
Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1)
Author: Sage, Angie
Word Count: 112921
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Author: Rowling, J.K.
Word Count: 77325
YA Fantasy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: Rowling, J.K.
Word Count: 198227
The Dark and Hollow Places
Author: Ryan, Carrie
Word Count: 103474
YA Fantasy: Dystopian
XVI
Author: Julia Karr
Word Count: 84,442
Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Word Count: 105,143
YA Paranormal
Wildefire
Author: Karsten Knight
Word Count: 91,046
YA Sci-fi
Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Word Count: 98,469
YA Contemporary
Where She Went
Author: Gayle Forman
Word Count: 55,415
And Then Things Fall Apart
Author: Arlaina Tibensky
Word Count: 54,196
Like Mandarin
Author: Kirsten Hubbard
Word Count: 66,561
Keep Sweet
Author: Michele Dominguez Greene
Word Count: 56,719
Invincible Summer
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Word Count: 51,295
But I Love Him
Author: Amanda Grace (Mandy Hubbard)
Word Count: 51,089
Beauty Queens
Author: Libba Bray
Word Count: 105,103
The best part of this post is the examples :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNice post- thanks for the examples!
ReplyDeleteI agree. This is a helpful post. Thanks, Christy
ReplyDeleteGreat post - thanks for the guidelines! <3
ReplyDelete